Sorry for the double post but it seems the output of dmesg is too big and it didn't fit with the other remarks I had in the previous post. I just want to add that iwlist and iwconfig produce a no such command error. I presume I should install them?

as of now, im running 2.6.34-gentoo-r6 x86_64 and have no wireless connection, but when rebooting with an older kernel (2.6.33-gentoo-r2),
and the same firmware iwl4965-ucode-228.61.2.24 everything works as expected. afaik, i havent changed configs, just copied them over from 2.6.33.
the machine in question is an ibm thinkpad r61.

says thay your system is looking for 4965 firmare.
If you have a file in /lib/firmware called iwl4965-ucode-228.61.2.24, it won't work as its name is not what the kernel wants.

You can try a symlink, so either name work

Code:

cd /lib/firmware
ln -s iwl4965-ucode-228.61.2.24 iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode

but I don't know if the file contents are the same.
You could also get the firmware from the web and rename it to iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode to keep the kernel module happy.
This site suggests that there is a iwlwifi-4965-ucode-4.44.17 verion around._________________Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Its the wrongly named file case. You have provided a file namaed <A>, the kernel is looking for a file named <B>
It may well be that the file name embedded in the kernel has changed from one kernel version to another._________________Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

okay, i think we're talking in a bit different levels :>
the file /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode(same md5 as in the one from intellinuxwireless.org) stays the same between reboots,
with kernel 2.6.33-gentoo-r2 everything works as expected.
booting into 2.6.34-gentoo-r6, and i get the same message as OP. just checked requested firmwares filename from iwl-4965.c, it's still the same as it was in 2.6.33-gentoo-r2 so it's imho not the case with wrong filenames :>

oh well, just rebuilt kernel, and set iwlagn as a loadable module(had it built in last time), everything works now with the same firmware.
im getting suspicious bout my config, because if there's only a few people complainin' then the problem's probably at their and my side :>

It should work either built in or as a module. In general, wifi seems to give more predictable performance when its a loadable module.
With it built in, I wonder if the kernel tries to load the firmware before root is mounted ?_________________Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

So after a month the community solved it, great work guys. I needed the computer I used for the testing thats why I couldn't update and just gave up on the thing. I think I'll try again after reading this. Though there is something that is bugging me, with the testing gentoo-sources kernel when making make defconfig the problem disappeared and the firmware was loaded, I can't say if defconfig marks iwlagn as a module but that may be the case there.